Civic Engagement

We are a leader in immigrant civic engagement work. We register voters year-round; develop communications campaigns that catalyze immigrant voters and shift public perception; train new immigrant and refugee leaders and groups; and organize hundreds of volunteers to work with us in the field to build a New American electorate. When underrepresented communities are active in civic life the common good is strengthened for everyone. We build power for good in the South!

History and Accomplishments

In 2017 Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta's work in the Special Election for the 6th Congressional District elevated historically underrepresented Asian American voices. Asian Americans comprised 11% of the total population in the 6th congressional district and our efforts greatly increased the number of Asian American votes. Just in the special election and run off election Advancing Justice-Atlanta and our coalition partners knocked over 5,600 doors, over 28,500 robocalls were sent, and for the first time, we launched a text program, facilitating personal one-on-one conversations with voters about the importance of their vote and essential information like polling locations and times to over a 1,100 voters.

Our overall civic engagement work impacted the increase Asian American voter turn-out. 63% of community members we had conversations with through texts, phone calls, and door-to-door canvassing turned out to vote - a turnout rate almost 6% higher than the district at large!

In 2016 we executed our most robust voter engagement program to date. To aid in this effort, Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Atlanta and the Center for Pan Asian Community Services (CPACS) founded the first-ever coalition in Georgia specifically serving communities of color, "the Georgia Immigrant Alliance for Civic Empowerment". We brought on over 25 partner groups.

Advancing Justice-Atlanta, along with our partner in this coalition, were able to assist over 6,500 people to register to vote in Georgia alone. We also sent 177,764 Voter Registration mailers in September 2016 to people in five states (Georgia, California, Illinois, Michigan, Washington), and helped over 5,300 people register to vote in those states, bringing our 2016 grand total to 11,856 registered voters through our voter registration efforts. We also extended our work outside the Metro Atlanta area into other cities in Georgia including Columbus and Macon, and visited our community members in 11 different counties to knock on over 11,400 doors.

We also planned, led, and executed our most expansive Election Protection program to date, providing in-language assistance and poll monitoring at 36 different precincts on Election Day, November 8.

In 2014 we helped to register more than 6,400 new voters in Georgia, knocked on more than 9,000 doors and attempted to call more than 40,000 individual households in Georgia, made possible through our training and coordination of hundreds of volunteers who are members of our Pan Asian Action Network.

In 2014 our overall civic engagement work helped to increase Asian American voter turn-out in Georgia by 25% compared to the 2010 Midterm election, in stark contrast to the overall decrease in voter participation levels at the national and state level.

74% Korean American voters who received our 10,000 Korean Votes direct mailer went to vote in 2014 vs. 17% of total Korean American eligible voters in Georgia. The statewide percentage voter turnout for 2014 was a depressing 38.2%.

Our 2013 municipal work in the city of Clarkston, Georgia (central refugee resettlement site) helped to increase voter turnout by approximately 40% compared to the previous Clarkston municipal election. Our field work and outreach to Southeast Asian refugees in Clarkston was featured in Maria Hinojosa’s documentary “America By The Numbers: Politics of the New South” which aired on PBS: http://tinyurl.com/politicssouth.

Our 2013 municipal work in city of Duluth, Georgia (22% AAPI and 58% minority population) more than doubled the number of voters that came out to vote compared to the previous municipal election.

In 2012 we produced a GOTV viral video “Voting Gangnam Style” featuring voting rights legend Congressman John Lewis which garnered collectively 68,000+ hits and counting, and received more than 200 media hits including HuffPo, Fox Nation, Variety and others.